Money & Markets Brief: February 6, 2013

Today’s Markets & Money brief is brought to you by Enbridge. Oil and gas is the lynchpin of the Canadian economy, driving investment and job-creation. Learn more.

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North American futures are pointing towards another strong opening. The TSX finished Tuesday up 28 points (0.2 per cent) while the Dow gained back most of its Monday losses, up 99 points (0.7 per cent). Oil slipped slightly at $96.05 a barrel and the Canadian dollar starts the day at $1.0045 US. Financial markets were up strongly overnight in Asia despite an earthquake and tsunami in the South Pacific, while Europe’s are so far just bouncing between positive and negative territory.

This morning, Statistics Canada releases a study that examines the association between the clustering of manufacturing plants in cities and their gains in labour productivity. The study looks at data from the 1990s.

And there’s no rest for weary senators. The finance and banking committee will immediately launch into its next project: the Financial Literacy Leader Act (C-28). Up first as witnesses are Minister of State for Finance Ted Menzies and Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Ursula Menke.

A word to the wise, if you’re doing something that could destroy the housing market and bring the global economy to its knees, best not get caught joking about it. Too late for Standard & Poor’s analysts who, according to the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, “sang and danced to a mock song inspired by ‘Burning Down the House'” and joked about the company’s willingness to rate deals “structured by cows.”

Michael Dell’s efforts to buy back the computer company he founded nearly 30 years ago have broken up a few times over the price the multi-billionaire is willing to pay to take his company private. The number being tossed around for the deal is $24.4 billion, which the 47-year-old Dell will front with help from Microsoft.

Molson Canadian’s new ad campaign, The Canadians, launched on YouTube over the weekend, has gone viral, hitting the 1-million hit mark overnight.

Rio Tinto’s is bailing on plans to build a $4-billion titanium plant in Quebec after prices for the metal continued to fall and the company is in the throws of a search for a new CEO.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is planning to succeed where his father, Ron Paul, failed: auditing the Federal Reserve. Paul is reintroducing a bill that last year passed in the House of Representatives but never made it to the Senate floor, blocked by Harry Reid. Paul thinks he now has the support needed to press it through the Senate as well.

And, finally, since there’s no way to take it with you, perhaps a quick peak at the Big Boys Toy Show will give you extra motivation to go out and make something happen.